Kate In Context

I'm coming to the end of my graduate school journey, so this week I decided to have some fun. One of the best, most popular basic puzzle games on the internet right now is New York Times' Connections . I enjoy playing this game - I have the archive of all Connections boards on my phone to play anytime. I hadn't thought about making my own board until this week, but I've now done so using some of the topics I've discussed in previous posts.  Before I talk about the topics I used  I've included a screenshot of the board, so complete the puzzle here first if you don't want to be spoiled! Please let me know how you did in the comments! Screenshot by author of their  Social Media Literacy Connections Board , made with Swellgarfo's online tool. Level 1 - Yellow The first topic I pulled from is social media uses. This seems like a simple category (which is why it’s the yellow one), but the uses themselves can be overlooked. Social media is vilified by politici...

I've been reading some Acceptable Use Policies this week, particularly looking at how they can help protect students' privacy and promote online safety. The design of the policy, the language used, and where responsibility is placed all play a part in how effective these policies are at protecting the safety and privacy of students while using school technology resources and beyond. AUPs are often written with a specific audience in mind, and how the policy is designed is informed by this intended audience. For example, this Digital Citizen Agreement from Illinois SD62 is intended to educate and inform students of varying ages, and so their policy employs graphics and avoids jargon so it's accessible to students and parents with different reading levels.  Policy language can appeal to values, seen in this AUP from Mahomet-Seymour Community Schools  that uses the template of "We value [blank], therefore, I will [blank]/I will not [blank]" to encourage responsible ...